How to help my 11-years old sister, who is terrified after watching a horror movie?
Context: at a birthday party my 11-years old sister watched Annabelle and Annabelle 2. She told us later that even though she was frightned the whole time, she didn't want to stop watching, mainly for a matter of pride. She explained that even though the films were being watched mainly by girls of 14-15 years old, there were a couple of younger ones (around 7/8 years old) watching, too. These younger girls were not very scared of the movie because they could not read the subtitles and so didn't really know what was happening; so my sister didn't want to appear to be more scared than everyone else.
Since then she has been waking up every night in terror. She wakes up, super scared, and goes to my parents bed; that's the only way she'll go back to sleep. Getting her to fall asleep is also very very hard; she says she can't stop thinking about the doll. She knows that the doll isn't real, that any of it isn't real; she says so herself. But still, she says that whenever she closes her eyes she just keeps imagining the doll behind her, or appearing by her side.
I have no idea what to do to comfort her, or make her fear go away. Again, it's not a matter of knowing the doll is not real; she keeps emphasising to us that she knows it isn't. But still, it seems that she is not being able to deal with her fear or her thoughts.
What are some strategies to make her feel safe and help her deal with her fear?
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Having a "comfort ritual" might help her. Turn the light on, find a good, engaging book, play some soothing music, eat something as you read. I used to have terrible nightmares and it would take me a while, sometimes hours, to pull my head out of them.
I also discovered that writing about what I was feeling helped to get the negative emotions out. I used to keep a "nightmare diary" (just a spiral notebook) in a drawer by my bed. I'd write down exactly what happened in my nightmare, then what it made me feel and what conclusions I drew from what I had dreamed (if any). Once I had written everything out of my head, I went on to reading a good book and playing music on the radio until I was sleepy enough to go back to bed.
Communication and education is the key to getting over our fears. Maybe you can find the making of the movie documentary so she can see all the actors off set being regular so she can see it's not real.
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